Demographic change is today one of the key challenges of sustainable development with many countries experiencing a decline in the urban population over the past few decades due to suburbanisation and de-industrialisation, which has resulted in a wide range of socio-economic issues (e.g. increased unemployment rate, decrease in revenue, degradation of properties). Mainly due to falling fertility rates, many cities and regions are likely to continue to “shrink” in the coming decades, even with some increases in population due to migration (from within or outside the country).

Russia and Eastern European countries face significant challenges that although sharing similarities with other OECD countries have unique dimensions not well understood. Russia from 1999 to 2009 lost 3.97% of its total population, other significant population changes over eastern Europe over the same time period include Bulgaria (-8.2%), Ukraine (-7.79%), Latvia (-6.1%) Albania (+5.93%) and Lithuania (+5.57%). Azerbaijan and Kosovo experienced 10.65% and 8.97% increase in population. The majority of the eastern European Countries are experiencing an increase in ageing population, from 1996-2011, Lithuania and Slovenia have experienced 4% increase from 1996 to 2011, followed by Latvia (3.6%) and Estonia (3.3%). A few countries have also experienced a minor decline in proportion of population aged over 65 with Azerbaijan and Russia from 2006 to 2010 experiencing -1.2% and -1.0% respectively.

New thinking is needed to address the planning, employment, and social implications of demographic change dynamics; sharing of current new experiences, policies, programmes and initiatives is a key knowledge intensive activity for addressing global challenges at the local level.

The current and most significant impacts of demographic changes in urban and rural areas in Russia and Eastern European countries.

Examples of current strategic approaches to address demographic changes and its opportunities for sustainable growth in new areas such as the green, silver and white industrial ecologies.

Experiences and cases from OECD countries, including the example of the Province of Trento and a field study tour.

With informative case studies, expert contributions and interactive workshops, the seminar was a valuable opportunity to share experiences and explore new approaches, economic and employment thinking. The seminar also offered opportunities to be part of a larger network of experts on demographic change and local development. For more information see https://community.oecd.org/community/demographicchange.

Who

The seminar was targeted at national, regional and local practitioners who dealt with anticipating and managing demographic changes in Russia and Eastern European countries and wanted to interchange experiences and approaches with other experts from OECD countries.

The seminar was also targeted to practitioners from other countries willing to exchange experiences and knowledge in the topic. Experts who were keen to share good practices and to be part of a knowledge network on demographic change & local development were also welcome to apply.